By Tiernan Ray

Shares of Apple (AAPL) continue to be weak this morning, breaching $500 again, currently off $2.42, or half a percent, at $498.33, following Monday’s disappointing fiscal Q2 outlook from the company.

BlueFin Research Partners analysts John Donovan and Steve Mullane this morning write that “the latest results suggest that with an installed base of approximately 300 million, of which 75% are “replacements”, there is enormous pressure for new products in 2014.”

Although they think the “trick for Apple is to navigate a better step into the low-end smartphone market,” nevertheless, they write “The China Mobile (CHL) impact on demand for the iPhone 5s continues to show promise and we see substantial runway given the breadth of the 3G installed base of approximately 200 million, half of which came on board as of 2013.”

Facebook effect

Shares of Facebook (FB) are up $8.35, or almost 16%, at $61.88, adding to last night’s after-hours gains, following better-than-expected Q4 results by the company, featuring expansion of its mobile advertising efforts.

Facebook has given a lift to Web, and especially social, names, with Twitter (TWTR) up $4.98, or over 8%, at $64.43, LinkedIn (LNKD) up $11.06, or over 5%, at $215.19, and Yelp (YELP) up $3.61, or 5%, at $75.56.

Price targets are zooming today, though there don’t appear to be any actual ratings changes.

J.P. Morgan’s Doug Anmuth reiterates an Overweight rating on the shares, and raises his price target to $80 from $62, writing that the “strong” results showed “significant improvement in margin as advertiser demand for social ads continues to build.” He liked the acceleration in ad revenue growth, year over year, to 66% from 76%, in the quarter. Ad impressions declined by 8% while prices rose 92%, he notes, thanks to fewer desktop ads, more mobile ads.

“We think 4Q is a further validation that Facebook can continue to drive mobile ad revenue growth through better ad quality and increasing advertiser demand in its ad auction,” writes Anmuth.

On the other hand, Evan Wilson of Pacific Crest reiterates Sector Perform rating on the shares, writing that the company “obliterated our estimates for the third consecutive quarter.” Even though he raised his estimates, he writes “Our reservation continues to be difficult comparisons, the lack of a wall-of-worry and valuation, but these certainly may not matter for another quarter at least.”

Simona Jankowski with Goldman Sachs reiterates a Buy rating this morning, and an $82 price target, writing “Qualcomm’s quarter was better than feared, in the light of weaker-than- expected results from Apple and Samsung [Electronics (005930KS)].” Although Jankowski cut her estimates, she notes the projection for sales of modems this quarter is better than weak smartphone trends would imply.

She also sees potential upside from China’s roll-out this year of LTE wireless service. “The company noted that it does see some potential upside to its CY2014 device forecast of 1.22-1.30bn units due to the LTE deployment in China.”

Nomura’s Anthony DiClemente, who has a Buy rating on Google shares, and a $1,300 price target, notes Google held onto the patent portfolio from Motorola. “This ongoing patent ownership likely allows for Google to maintain its defense against Android- related lawsuits,” he writes.

“All in all, keeping the patents while selling the loss- making hardware unit is the most strategically and financially desirable outcome for Google.”

Shares of Lenovo traded down by about 6% in Hong Kong trading following the announcements.

Time-Warner Cable resists

Shares of Time-Warner Cable (TWC) are $1.42, or 1%, at $133.52, after the company this morning reported Q4 revenue of $5.58 billion and EPS of $1.82, topping consensus of $5.56 billion and $1.73. The company said during a conference call following the results that it expects to have about again as much in share repurchase this year as last year, and that it expects to make $25.7 billion in revenue by 2016.

During that conference call, Time-Warner executives, who are fighting a public “bear hug” offer to merge from Charter Communications (CHTR), made their case for why investors should not embrace the Charter offer of $132.50.

Said CEO Rob Marcus, “The folks at Charter and Liberty are very smart guys and they think they see a chance to force a trade before the public realizes what we can achieve with our standalone plan.”

“Hopefully after today you feel a lot more comfortable about our go forward plan and the intrinsic value of this company.”

Marcus went on CNBC this morning with David Faber. Faber asked Marcus whether he would be willing to state something below the $160 he’s indicated as a minimum, such as, perhaps, $145 per Time Warner share. Faber pointed out that would be about $5,000 per Time Warner subscriber. Marcus responded that per-subscriber valuations are not the right way to think about his business, but rather multiples of Ebitda and cash flow, and that $145 would be too low.

Speaking of mergers and acquisitions, in case you missed it, William Baer, assistant attorney general for antitrust, said in an interview with Edward Wyatt of The New York Times that it would be “hard” for any of the top four U.S. wireless carriers to make a case for merging. That, as Wyatt writes, would seem to “cast doubt on recent speculation that T-Mobile (TMUS) and Sprint (S) might consummate a deal in coming months.”

About Tech Trader Daily

Tech Trader Daily is a blog on technology investing written by Barron’s veteran Tiernan Ray. The blog provides news, analysis and original reporting on events important to investors in software, hardware, the Internet, telecommunications and related fields. Comments and tips can be sent to: techtraderdaily@barrons.com.